Sought-after Superman comic sells for $3.2m on ebay

A 10 cent comic, which featured the debut of Superman, was bought on eBay yesterday for $3.2m (£1.9m), making it probably the most expensive comic book ever sold. The Action Comics No 1 has been considered the ‘Holy Grail of comics' because it featured Superman's debut, which arguably launched the entire superhero industry.

A 10 cent comic, which featured the debut of Superman, was bought on eBay yesterday for $3.2m (£1.9m), making it probably the most expensive comic book ever sold. The Action Comics No 1 has been considered the ‘Holy Grail of comics' because it featured Superman's debut, which arguably launched the entire superhero industry.

The almost pristine copy, priced at 10 cents when it was published in 1938, was advertised by the seller Darren Adams, an American collector, as “the Mona Lisa of comics — the finest known copy of the most sought-after comic in the world”.

The price dwarfed the previous known sum paid for another copy of an Action Comics No 1 — £1.3m in 2011.